Reclaiming Your Mind: How to Keep Your Agency in the Age of AI and Endless Distraction

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Losing Agency Voluntarily

I remember the first time I said the word “Agency” out loud. I was in my mom’s kitchen in our village of Poranki looking out of our balcony. Fifty feet across in our neighbor’s balcony, an old woman was getting bathed by her son and daughter-in-law. They had propped her up in a plastic chair and were hurriedly pouring water over her from a bucket full of running tap water.

What that lady lacked at that moment, I thought, was Agency – the ability to act on her own terms. What will become of me when I will no longer have agency, I wondered. Over the year since, I’ve thought about it many times only to realize that many of us, including me, are surrendering the precious agency of our mind – not to old age, but to the constant pull of our personal devices.

When Did It Begin?

I should have seen this coming. Hasn’t it been a decade since Netflix started telling me what to watch next and eventually overtook my motivation to skip what it was recommending? What about that time when I was typing a word and my iPhone was ready to finish it for me?

Somewhere between the pings, alerts, and endless scroll, I’ve realized that over the past two years, I haven’t just outsourced my labor, I’ve also outsourced my thinking. When I need to send a work email, I draft something quickly, and if it’s an executive summary, I hand it over to ChatGPT to polish the flow and make it sound appropriate.

What’s scary is how quickly I’ve given AI the power to make me feel accomplished, especially with these GenAI apps that give me a God complex because I issue commands and they obey without question. AI doesn’t challenge my motives, nor does it nudge me toward better behavior.

Infact, if I want a balanced perspective rather than a neatly sugar-coated one, I have to explicitly prompt it to give me the whole truth from both sides of the argument, and not just a palatable version.

Modern Day Challenges Compounded by AI Automation

AI will become more persuasive, more predictive, and more personal than anything we’ve seen before. It has started mimicking our voice, finishing our thoughts and anticipating our needs even before we know we have them – cue your customized ads that keep popping up everywhere on social media feeds.

And this is exactly the problem, if we stop deciding what matters to us, an algorithm will make that decision for you. It’s happening subtly all around us and we’re too busy to notice.

The point is retaining mental agency isn’t about rejecting technology, it’s about pausing to ask ourselves, Am I being intentional about this decision or is the algorithm thinking for me?

Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Challenges

There’s a timeless chariot metaphor in Hinduism that beautifully illustrates the nature of our mind and intellect. Our body is the chariot, the senses are the horses, and the mind is the reins. But controlling the reins is the intellect (buddhi) or the charioteer. Mastery over the “horses” – our sensory impulses, begins with the reins: the mind’s regulation, guided by the intellect.

These lessons are especially relevant in the modern world where we’re surrounded by endless sensory stimuli. Understand what the information diet your mind is on. With the right knowledge, the intellect grows stronger through shravanam, mananam, and nidhidhyasanam. Hinduism challenges the man via its many scriptures, who is an ideal man if he can’t control his mind?

Reclaiming Agency in the Digital Age

When working with teens, I begin by asking: “What do you love doing most, without needing to be pushed?” That innate joy plants the seeds of self-belief. Once someone realizes their ideas matter, they rise to meet that respect. Agency here comes from innovating or creating something out of our ideas.

Psychological frame shifting is another inner tool that is stepping back and asking, “What if this problem isn’t what it seems?” Like flipping a switch, clarity replaces chaos, and agency replaces entanglement. Once again, agency comes with problem solving.

Still, motivation can only take us so far. True staying power comes from habits rooted in discernment and purpose. In a future shaped by humans and machines, it’s not just agency. Once we define a purpose for this one beautiful life of ours, we automatically own our agency.

The Last True Frontier: The Agency Over Our Mind

Did you know today, the average person consumes 174 newspapers worth of information daily? Do you really need all that junk? Step back and analyze tasks that have your undivided attention and those where focus falters. Take stock. Learn about attention residue and its impact on personal growth and productivity.

All these distractions aside, I will leave you with a final thought. Our algorithms are not our master, our mind is. We can’t be trusting external options and decision makers more than our trusted inner compass, our gut instincts!

Our own discretionary power is enough for us to help decide how and what we can contribute to humanity. It’s time to take back agency, even if it feels like an act of rebellion.

High and Low Agency Behaviors

Low Agency Thoughts And Behaviors

High Agency Thoughts And Behaviors

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